This invention relates to a bathtub having features which insure the safe and convenient ingress and egress of a person into and out of the tub, whether the person be an invalid or one having no physical handicaps whatsoever.
In invalid or safety bathtubs known to the prior art, as shown for example in Fowler U.S. Pat. No. 2,570,053, a bathtub is provided with a water-tight side door for purposes of easier ingress and egress from the tub. The problem with the Fowler tub, and with other tubs employing a side door, is that a person must stand on the slippery floor of the tub while entering or leaving. In addition, once having entered the tub, he must crouch down and then slide his legs forward in order to assume a normal bathing position, i.e., seated with legs extended on the tub floor. Since numerous deaths and injuries are caused by slipping while entering and exiting a bathtub in a standing position, the Fowler tub and those similar to it fail to eliminate the major personal danger involved in bathing. The dangers are further magnified if the bather is an invalid. Furthermore, the fact that an invalid using the Fowler tub would have to crouch down to assume a normal bathing position, and rise to a standing position in order to leave the tub, hardly offers sufficient convenience for an invalid having limited bending capability in his back or legs.
A second generation of bathtub inventions is illustrated by Hanson U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,078, which provides a seat within the bathtub and an entrance door at the end of the tub opposite the seat. As in the case of the Fowler tub, however, the type of tub depicted by this patent requires the bather to stand on the slippery tub floor while entering and leaving the tub. Moreover, even though a seat is provided in the tub which allows a person to assume a seated position without having to crouch down, this position is not the normal bathing position seated with legs extended on the floor of the tub, and the ability of the person to comfortably soak and wash in the tub in the conventional manner is therefore greatly limited.
In order to solve the above deficiencies of prior art bathtubs, elaborate mechanical means have been employed in order to provide both safety and convenience in the use of bathtubs. For example, in Moran U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,018, a rotatable drum is provided in the tub wall with an open segment to provide an entrance into the bathtub. The bather sits on the seat within the drum and the drum is rotated by a motor until the open segment faces the interior of the bathtub. The seat is then lowered by another motor to the bottom of the tub so that the person can bathe. To get out of the tub, the procedure is reversed. In order to construct and maintain a bathtub of this type, a considerable expenditure of money is necessary because of its complex system of motors and moving parts. For most individuals or families such a tub is probably beyond their economic means.